The Edge of Reason
by badmoonrisingx
Summary: Set after the events of Homecoming, Elena is left at the end of her tether with Stefan and the threat of Klaus still hanging over her head. With Damon promising to make it through together, will this make them? Or break them?


Chapter One: Beginnings

The cold win swept through the last of the autumn leaves on the trees, making them rustle noisily. Elena Gilbert lay in her bed, her long brown hair fanned across her pillow, listening intently to the sounds of nature coming from outside. She was hoping that by concentrating on something else, it would help to take her mind of the one thing she had forbid herself to think of. Damon.

He was everywhere. He was there when she woke up, making himself a coffee in the kitchen. And when she went to school, he was there discussing some new diabolical plan with Ric. So, she would escape to the Grill with Caroline to talk about anything but the supernatural and there he would be, drink bourbon. Without fail, just at the sun had set, and the moon was rising, he would be there. Lounging on her bed or raking through her underwear drawer, just to ask how her day had gone.

And, unintentionally, on her part at least, he had firmly settled himself into a place in her heart. She found herself looking for him to be there, missing him when he was absent, calling him to tell him something Bonnie had told her over lunch. Was she falling in love with him? She didn't even want to let that thought enter her head.

"What about Stefan?" A voice would scream inside her head. She loved him, of course, but these past few months had made her realise that she didn't really know Stefan at all. She had put on a brave face and defended him to anyone who would listen, blaming everyone from Klaus to herself as to why "Saint Stefan" had suddenly, without much force, turned into "Ripper Stefan."

But of course, she was beginning to realise, he had been this person all along, before he had met Elena, before he even met Klaus. It was a side he had kept very well hidden, and for a very good reason it appeared. Elena just couldn't brush that aside and proclaim "It will always be Stefan." When she knew what he had done, when she had berated Damon for much less.

Damon. There he was again, popping into her head as she thought of Stefan.

She flinched at the sound of a tap to the window, the sound of it creaking open and she watched as a dark figure half climbed through. It was almost as if he had heard her thoughts, as she stared at the face of the one person she had been trying to keep out her mind.

"Elena?" He called out softly to her.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and sighed to herself.

"Damon."

She would hear him climbing through the window, accepting his name to be open enough invitation to visit her bedroom at this ungodly hour. And next thing she knew; a heavy weight flopped down beside her on to the bed. She could smell his cologne, slightly over powering but nice all the same. It suited him perfectly, she thought wryly.

She knew he would want to talk about what had happened earlier, he would want to analyse and blame someone for it all going wrong. But, he lay silently on the bed beside her, enjoying the moment of calm.

At the beginning of the year, she would never have imagined she would have been spending the night of homecoming like this. With her boyfriend's brother in her bed, once again terrified at the thought of a deranged, un-killable original hell bent on suck every drop of blood from her body.

"You were right earlier." He stated firmly. She opened her eyes to look up at him and found him to be staring straight ahead. "We will get through this Elena, I've told you before. I will always choose you." He glanced down at her, meeting her gaze, and his mouth curled up into his oh so famous smirk.

As Elena looked up into his intense blue orbs, a wave of relief washed over her. He was still here, still determined to fight for her life, even if it meant fighting against his own flesh and blood. He had told her once before, if it came down to saving her life or someone else's, that he would always choose to save her. He had been true to his word, maybe not always in the smartest of ways, feeding Elena his blood had been a low point but anything he done was always with the intention of never losing her.

"Thank you." She eventually managed to croak. She was so overcome with emotion after all the events of the evening, and now thinking back on all the times he had saved her. Memories of him coming face to face with Elijah in Trevor's apartment, of pulling her from the car when she flipped it over and even of carrying her from the hospital after Klaus tried to drain her.

Earlier, at the Salvatore Boarding house, it had been her delivering almost the exact same speech. Telling him how they would make it through together, how they would forget Stefan if that was what they had to do. But hearing it from Damon himself, reassured her that she wouldn't be alone in all this.

He smiled down at her, the smile not quite touching his eyes; as he reached down to stroke her check softly. She couldn't imagine what was going through his head; he had been so close to killing Klaus, to saving her, and then to be thwarted by the one person he would normally expect to have his back. Stefan.

Her body warmed at her touch, and she shuffled closer to him on the bed, tucking herself into the crook of his arm. Elena longed for just one moment where she could feel safe again, and as Damon pulled her closer, she did.

The light from the rising sun streamed through the window of Elena's bedroom in the Gilbert household, waking Elena from her slumber. Her first thoughts were that she felt content, well rested and then secondly she questioned why there was another body in the bed with her. Her back was pressed right up against their stomach, their bodies fitting perfectly together and there was a hand draped lazily across her waist.

It was as she looked at the hand, she recognised immediately the ring on one of the fingers. Damon. She warily moved slightly and lifted her head to get a better look at his face to only find him sound asleep. His face was free of all the worry that had been etched across it for days, Elena smiled at how peaceful he looked and laid her head back down on the pillow. She couldn't bear to wake him.

She couldn't believe that he had actually spent the night. It had become a bit of a nightly routine ever since she had lay that night telling him how she had won Rebekah over, he would lie with her until she fell asleep and then he would disappear. She imagined that he must be off doing something diabolical, him being Damon of course.

"Your hearts racing, are you thinking about me again?" He whispered in her ear, causing her heart to accelerate even more. She could picture in her head the smug look he would have on his face, proud of his ever so witty comment. He rolled away from her and she turned around to face him. Trying to keep the looks of distain on her face was proving to be difficult. Under no circumstances did she want him to know that was exactly what she had been doing.

"Oh you are so funny, ha ha!" She replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Meeting his intense stare, she started to feel more than a little uncomfortable. Her hair was than likely all mussed up, she probably had morning breath and she was wearing nothing but a tiny pair of short shorts and a camisole.

She jumped up from the bed quickly and grabbed a dressing gown from the peg on the back of her bathroom door sliding it on. She looked back over to the bed, Damon looked deep in thought and Elena was suspicious. Before she even had a chance to question him, he spoke.

"I think we should get out of town, take a little Damon and Elena road trip, up for it?" He looked over at her, finally meeting her gaze. His trademark smirking smile present on that lovely face of his.

"What? Like today?" She spluttered. "What about Klaus? What about Stefan? What about..."

"Why not today?" he cut across her, "We can act like two normal people, hanging out as two normal friends and we can talk about normal things like how hideous Bonnie's dress sense was in freshman year or about that time Caroline cut her hair with the garden shears?"

Elena laughed at him.

"You do know those things never happened right?"

"I know," he smirked. "But I'm sure you have plenty of embarrassing stories about Blondie and Witchy to keep me amused all day."

She contemplated it, a day spent away from Mystic Falls. No drama, no Stefan and no creepy original vampire breathing down their necks. It sounded like a good idea, and they had got on pretty well when he had kidnapped her and took her to Georgia.

"Sure, let's do it!" She smiled the first genuine smile to grace her face in a long time. She turned away from him and headed into the bathroom before she could see the reaction on his face. She didn't want him to think too much into this, she was just being a good friend to him, as he was being to her. She knew he loved her, but it's not like she loved him back. Well not right now anyway.

Elena grimaced and pushed the thought out of her head as she flipped the dial for the shower. Thinking those things about Damon was just asking for trouble. So she mental put a lid on it and stepped into the hot flow of water.


End file.
